1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing apparatus and to a printing method and, more particularly, to a printing apparatus for continuously printing a liquid resist onto an elongated base material and to a printing method using the printing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
It has been known to continuously print conductive patterns onto a belt-like elongated film by a TAB (Tape Automated Bonding) method.
To form a solder resist covering the conductive patterns, the method includes forming the conductor patterns, continuously screen-printing a liquid resist, and then drying the printed liquid resist. In consideration of a filling property of the liquid resist into the gaps between the conductive patterns, ensuring a film thickness, and a mold release property from a screen printing plate, the liquid resist contains an appropriate amount of solvent relative to a resin for forming the resist.
As an example of such an apparatus for continuously printing a solder resist, a continuous printing apparatus has been proposed comprising a film supply unit for supplying a belt-like film by unreeling the film out of a film supply reel, a printing processing unit for printing a coating on the supplied film, a preparatory drying means for preparatorily drying the coating printed on the film, and a film collection unit for collecting the film having the preparatorily dried coating by winding up around a film collection reel (see, e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2004-356268).